Los Angeles-based trumpeter and composer
Josef Leimberg had a lengthy résumé before he became known to a broader audience through his work on
Kendrick Lamar's platinum-certified, Grammy-winning
To Pimp a Butterfly. He arrived during the early '90s as a member of the short-lived rap group
Mad Kap,
King Tee associates who were among the early acts on Loud Records. After one album with that group,
Leimberg shifted into session gigs. During the remainder of the '90s and the early 2000s, the artists who featured his work included
Volume 10,
Busdriver,
Freestyle Fellowship, and
Snoop Dogg.
Leimberg's exposure increased toward the end of the 2000s and into the 2010s with bold additions to
Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, Pt. 1,
Sa-Ra's
Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, and
Shafiq Husayn's
Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka. He also appeared on a crop of
Robin Thicke albums. After working with
Big K.R.I.T. and
Funkadelic,
Leimberg co-wrote, co-produced, and appeared on "How Much a Dollar Cost" and "You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)," two of the deeper highlights on
To Pimp a Butterfly. The next year,
Leimberg gathered fellow
Pimp players
Terrace Martin,
Kamasi Washington, and
Bilal, along with the likes of
Jimetta Rose,
Georgia Anne Muldrow, and
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and recorded his first album, Astral Progressions. A progressive fusion of spiritual/cosmic jazz, soul, and hip-hop, it was released in October 2016 on the World Galaxy label. ~ Andy Kellman